MAYOR’S REPORT | December 8, 2024

 

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I was able to visit with my children and grandchildren and it was a great reminder about what is truly important in life.  Our relationships with others keep us going.  Don’t forget that in these trying times.  Lean on others and let them help you, let them support you.

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The Village continues to lean on so many to help us recover and rebuild.  Spokes of Hope, City Serve, and others continue to pour love, support, and volunteer hours into our Village and it is truly amazing.  Shane Zoccole told us over 1200 volunteers have worked with Spokes of Hope rebuilding our Village.  That is support! Wow!

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NC DOT is making great strides with the emergency, temporary road construction. The Village anticipates that the road between Chimney Rock and Bat Cave will be completed in the near future and be finalized for safe local traffic between our two communities. Please be patient and this will be announced as soon as possible. DOT awarded a contract to Wright Brothers Construction to rebuild the permanent road westward and also the bridge to Chimney Rock Park. This will be the first “Design/Build” road in NC, where the road is designed and built at the same time.

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The Village has entered into a contract with a Disaster Recovery Company, ROSTAN Solutions.  They will assist us with managing all aspects of our disaster recovery from planning, to finances, to FEMA assistance.  The cost of this is covered in management fees which are part of our FEMA recovery projects.  Many communities use these types of companies in disaster recovery and we feel it will be a great help in our efforts.

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The Chimney Rock Village Task Force held its first meeting. There are 11 voting members who will be developing short-term and long-term plans for the Village's recovery. Don Cason was selected by the committee to be the Chairman and J. Meliski and Nick Sottile agreed to serve as co-Vice Chairmen.  The Task Force will hold a workshop on December 18 at 10am at the Chimney Rock VFD. A public input session will be held on January 15 at 1pm (location to be determined).  

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The Christmas Event for Chimney Rock Village will be held this Saturday, Dec 14 from 10-4pm.  This event is being planned and sponsored by our great friends at City Serve and Spokes of Hope.   Visitors will park at the Lake Lure Beach area and board shuttle buses for Village tours.  This is a chance to see how the recovery is progressing and to support the Village's small business community.  Every business in Chimney Rock is a “Mom and Pop” small business.  Many of them have very limited resources and very few, if any, government support or assistance.  They need you to contribute to events like this so please be generous.  You will make a difference.